Growing Your Business with City’s Retention, Expansion Incentive

By John Saltonstall

Thirty thousand dollars are up for grabs to expand your business. The Business Retention and Expansion Incentive competitive grant program is open. Applications will be accepted until Aug. 31. Find the program and the application at ChooseFlagstaff.com, then submit your application to jsaltonstall@ flagstaffaz.gov.

The program is designed to provide businesses with additional fund- ing that will result in an expansion of the business’s facility, market share, or employment – or all three – and in the enhancement of the workforce pipeline for their industry.

If you, as a business owner, have been socking away funds for a capital expenditure (buying equipment) or to renovate/expand your physical operations, but need more funding, this program is for you.

Applications will be scored and may receive up to 100 points. The saved funds referenced above may serve as a match. Ten points are available for your match. The higher the match, the higher your score in the match category.

Environmental Impact and Wages are two other scored categories, with 25 points available for each. Businesses that demonstrate that they are low water/low energy users, that have recycling programs or an otherwise low carbon footprint, will be awarded more points in the Environmental Impact category. Businesses that demonstrate that they pay their employees above the Coconino County median wage of $18.19/hour will be awarded more points in the Wages category.

There are 40 points available for the direct community benefit category. This one will require some thought. There are two general ways to score points here: infrastructure or workforce development or both. The infrastructure piece can throw people for a loop; how do I, as a small business, accomplish this? Imagine you need to upgrade your power supply. Depending upon where you are located and the anticipated power needs of your future neighbors, you could be asked to upsize that infrastructure to accommodate future growth. That would be considered a direct community benefit and would be awarded a higher score.

The workforce development element can also throw people for a loop. A business owner may wonder how they may participate in workforce development when they are just trying to run a business! Here are a few ideas to help.

ƒ Internships.

ƒ Apprenticeships.

ƒ Mentor Programs.

ƒ Job Shadowing. All of those types of programs serve to grow talent in your given industry sector. Depending upon your business, you may have the opportunity to invite youth who are preparing to enter the workforce. High school aged individuals are looking for experience. Develop a job shadowing program to help them to explore career and industry options. Help the workforce of the future understand the ways of work such as pay periods or what to do when there are questions or any number of such “little things” that a first-time worker may not know to consider at all. Consider developing an internship or apprenticeship program. As such programs likely engage a more mature population that includes college-aged people, both give the business the chance to find and shape prospective employees. If you have employees who may benefit from upskilling to get to their next level, consider developing an incumbent worker training program to help them to do so. Such a program could include additional certifications or training or the like.

An added benefit to any of those types of programs may be enhanced by working directly with the ARIZONA@WORK Coconino County Workforce Development Board and the related ARIZONA@WORK Coconino County Career Services; there is funding for such program. With all of that text about workforce development as a direct community benefit, you may think this Business Retention and Expansion Incentive should be called something that includes Workforce Development in the title. The topics go hand in hand, as do the practices. As you continue to run your business, think of the opportunities to grow your market share, new practices and new business lines, and your workforce. The Business Retention and Expansion Incentive is the invitation to you to do all those things. There is up to $30,000 available to the business that demonstrates that they will invest in their business and in their current and future employees. FBN

If you have any questions about the program, contact John Saltonstall, the Business Retention and Expansion manager for the City of Flagstaff, at jsaltonstall@ flagstaffaz.gov or at 928-606-9430.